The Wicker Man - 50 years on

I watched Robin Hardy's extraordinary 1973 folk horror masterpiece The Wicker Man last night. 

I've probably watched the film 20 or 30 times over the years - usually in the first week of May - and it never loses its power.

The film was made at a time when the UK movie industry was going through tough times and British Lion Films - which had been very successful in the 1960s - was now in dire financial trouble. It was rescued by wealthy businessman John Bentley but, in order to convince the unions that he was not about to asset-strip the company, he needed to get a film into production quickly. That film was The Wicker Man. Filming was brought forward to the autumn of 1972 - which was an issue as the story is set all around May Day and artificial leaves and blossoms had to be glued to trees in many scenes. The production was kept on a small budget (£471,600) and Christopher Lee - who was extremely keen to get the film made - and many of the other actors worked without pay. The film was a critical success and, as the result, British Lion was revitalised and was subsequently bought by EMI Films. It has since gone on to become a cult favourite and often appears in 'Top 10' British film lists.

The screenplay was written by Anthony Shaffer who wanted the film to be 'a little more literate' than the average horror film. He specifically wanted a film with a minimum of violence and gore. The idea of a confrontation between a modern Christian and a remote, pagan community intrigued him so he painstakingly researched the subject. Brainstorming with Hardy, they conceived of a film where the pagan elements were presented objectively and accurately, accompanied by authentic music and a believable, contemporary setting.

The focus of the film was crystallised when Shaffer discovered an image of a wicker man, which accompanied Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War: 

'Others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of osiers (willow) they fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames.' 

Shaffer has stated that this was 'the most alarming and imposing image that I had ever seen.' 

So how true is the legend of the wicker man? Not very it seems. 

There is some archaeological evidence of human sacrifice among Celtic peoples, although it is rare. The ancient Greco-Roman sources for this are now regarded somewhat sceptically, as it was most likely anti-Druidic propaganda. Meanwhile, only Julius Caesar and the Greek geographer Strabo ever mentioned the wicker man as a form of sacrifice. Most modern historians and archaeologists stress that these accounts should be viewed with caution, as the Greeks and Romans had good reason to depict their Celtic enemies as uncivilised barbarians. This may have led to exaggeration or even fabrication of stories.

In the 1st century BCE, Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote in Bibliotheca Historica that the Celts sacrificed human and animal captives by burning them on huge pyres along with the first fruits. It has been suggested that both Diodorus and Strabo got their information from the earlier Greek historian Posidonius, whose work has not survived. 

In the 1st century CE, Roman writer Lucan mentioned human sacrifices to the Gaulish gods Esus, Toutatis and Taranis. In a commentary on Lucan - the Commenta Bernensia dating from the 4th century and later - an unnamed author added that sacrifices to Taranis were burned in a wooden container. But that is it - there are no other historical references to wicker men or anything similar.

It was, in fact, the 1973 film that brought the wicker man into modern culture and it's now a popular motif with non-sacrificial versions being burned at various festivals around the UK and the world.

Here's a great example - a wicker phoenix - from the recent Butser Farm Beltane Festival.

Anthony Shaffer went on to write many murder mystery novels and plays, and the screenplays for several Agatha Christie film adaptations including Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Death on the Nile (1978).

Robin Hardy, meanwhile, wrote a series of historical novels but most worked in making commercials until 2011 when he wrote and directed a kind of sequel to The Wicker Man called The Wicker Tree. Set in the USA and based upon Hardy's book Cowboys for Christ, it's quite watchable but is nowhere as powerful as the 1973 film.

As for the 2006 American remake of The Wicker Man with Nicholas Cage ... least said soonest mended I reckon. 

It's appalling.